Month: November 2017

I was perusing my emails today and, low and behold, I find a little nugget about Besame’s upcoming Marvel Agent Carter line. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to decipher the clue they sent, so I am calling on all my Agent Carter fans for help.

What do you think? Is there a clue here on when the line is going to drop?

I know that Red Velvet must be part of the line as there is clearly a reference to it below and Besame also happened to feature it today in Instagram and Twitter. Not to mention that the color formulation is from 1946, which would place us right around the same time Agent Carter joined Shield, but what else am I missing?

Anyone else able to pick up on any other tidbits? If so, drop them in the comments below. We can super sleuth together.

Sofia has become obsessed with Pink. Not hot pink (too edgy) or rosy pink (too grandma-ish), but that powdery baby pink that looks like cotton candy. She also LOVES Victoria’s Secret PINK, much to the disappointment of my wallet. During Black Friday, she used some of her tutoring money to splurge on some items while shopping in Aventura Mall and no surprise, everything she bought was pink.

I’m going to have to invest in a case load of Tide Sticks.

While shopping at Forever 21, she picked up this pink cropped sweatshirt. Since she is only 12 (MOM!!!! Why do you always have to point that out?), I did make her go up a size so that she was not exposing so much. She normally wears a Medium, but I had her get Large and it worked out perfectly. Slouchy enough for comfort, but not showing all her goods.

She also picked up this cream colored hoodie at Forever 21 Less. It’s actually a pajama top, but she said she was going to use it as a regular top. It’s not flimsy or see through and it cost about $12, so go for it, girl!

Needless to say, the bulk of her cash, and some of mine as well (She always manages to swindle me!) was spent in PINK. Every Holiday season they sell these boxed set with a sweatshirt top and leggings and normally it goes for $64.95, but PINK was feeling “generous” and reduced it to $54.95.

She also bought some of the body sprays that were on sale for $6 each. Sofia is addicted to body sprays and has quite a collection. Hey, not going to complain, I often times go into her room and spritz myself with one of her bottles.

It all evens out. I gave her life, she allows me to use her stuff. Everyone’s happy.

Now it’s time to gear up for Christmas. Sofia’s list of things she wants can circle the globe 3 times, so I am currently working on paring that down. She was kind enough to email me her list (save the trees!), which includes links to all the items on her wish list.

Don’t you just love this age? (Says this while pouring her 3rd glass of wine)

I was trying to get into zone to write this post, so I did a quick search on Pandora for songs with the word Pink in it and I came across one from Aerosmith, which is actually called “Pink”. I think they may be talking about lady parts (not 100% sure as I tend to be quite literal), but don’t worry, today’s musing is definitely about Hard Candy’s Pinking of You Palette. Not lady parts.

I have a lot of love for Hard Candy. It takes me back to my youth, when they sold those nail polishes with the little heart-shaped ring on the applicator. I used to work at this department store in high school called Burdines that sold them and I remember that one Christmas I splurged and bought myself like 5 with my employee discount. I specifically remember one of the colors was this canary yellow color that I wore on my toes. I felt like such a baller!

Nowadays, Hard Candy is definitely way more accessible in price. As a matter of fact, nothing is over $10! So when I was in Walmart last weekend, I decided to anti-splurge and buy my self a little something-something. Sofia was with me, and she showed me the Pinking of You palette and at first I was like, “Nah”, I have so many similar colors at home already. Off the top of my head, The TooFaced Sweet Peach Palette and Natural Love already carries most of these shades, so I declined. However, Sofia said she wanted it for herself, and seeing as my TF Palettes are off-limits to her, as things mysteriously enter her room, but never come back, I said yes.

Just a couple of hours later, I was the one taking Sofia’s makeup when I was getting ready for a night out with the family and I spied the palette sitting there and I was like “Why Not?”. On the outside it looks like a lovely warm palette with bright pinky corals, browns, creams and one red. They are all shimmers, which is a drawback, and didn’t exactly swatch very well as they seemed very sheer and powdery. However, I trucked on.

I ended up using my Marc Jacobs contour as a transition shade, and then dipped into the brick-red color and applied that to the outer V and blended that just a bit into the crease. I was not expecting the color to come show up, but it did. After building it up a bit, I was intrigued to try the others.

Trying to keep the look simple, I patted the pinky shimmer one in the middle (why does Hard Candy not name these colors?) with my finger on the middle of my lid and took it to the inner corner. Then, with the same brush I applied the red, just blended it a bit to remove any harsh lines.

Wanting a little more definition on the outer V, I took the dark brown shade on the left and darkened the corner a bit. I then took the red again and smoked the lower lid and added the dark brown again to the outer lower lash. Finished it off with the white shimmer shade on the brow bone and the inner corner and I was done.

Although these colors swatched like duds, they blended really nicely with a brush. I liked the look so much, that I replicated it for work the next day and I got TWO compliments, so I knew it was a winner and one that I needed to add to the repertoire.

I will say that you definitely need to use some eye primer as by the end of my work day, the look did fade a bit. The red I used on the outer was still visible, but the shimmery pink was pretty much all gone. I think next time, I would definitely use some setting spray to see if I can extend the life a bit. I always forget that step!

Anyone else have any other Hard Candy products they want to recommend? If so, leave in the comments below.

Yes. It’s that time again where I take you on a magical trip down my camera roll. Yesterday, I decided to take the kids and my daughters friend Black Friday shopping at Aventura Mall in Miami and let me preface this post by saying that I WILL NEVER GO SHOPPING WITH 3 KIDS EVER AGAIN!

I am so physically exhausted and brain dead that I can barely function this morning. Also, I don’t want to see the inside of a Forever 21 or H&M for at least a few months. Holy Crap, they were in Forever 21 for so long, that I had to find a little nook somewhere between the shoe section and the dressing room and crouch awkwardly with Logan. I know I must have looked like I was panhandling.

“Please, sir. Can you buy me this velour cold shoulder bodysuit?”

Everytime I thought they were ready to pay, some hoodie or sweatshirt caught their attention. I mean, come on ladies, cut this old lady a break!

Regardless, I did manage to have some fun and captured some images for posterity.

So let the show begin!

Oh you know, just cuddling up to a Reindeer Topiary sitting cross legged on a bench. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Awww Yeaahhh, Baby! There is a TopShop in Miami. I mean, there might be more, but I’m not cool enough to know where they are. Also, TopShop carries Kylie Cosmetics, but I couldn’t even sniff a lip kit because there were so many people converging around the displays. Sofia gave me the stink eye when I said “No way Jose’s Daughter!” (cause the Hubs name is Jose…get it? Ok. Moving on)

They literally wanted to take pictures at all the holiday displays and I was about at hour 3 here and wondering how the hell they still got all this energy.

The Nintendo Holiday Experience was the bomb. I got a chance to play Mario Odyssey and I LOVED it! As a classic Nintendo lover, I love it when it switches to pixelated Mario.

Yes. Yes that is the new Lego Millennium Falcon. Do you have about $800 laying around somewhere? If not, don’t worry. It’s sold out everywhere. So you can’t buy it anyways.

When I first started my Instagram under TheBeautySwatcher, I used to have a weekly post called The Friday Five where I did a 5 minute mini review on a beauty product. Ok, to be honest, I only did that for like four weeks, but whose counting? Anyways, I decided to revive The Friday Five, but instead of doing a beauty review, I thought do a fun list of 5 things that tickled my fancy that day.

Since this is our inaugural edition, which happens to fall on, arguably, the most famous Friday of the year, I decided to kick it off by highlighting the Top 5 Things I LOVE about Black Friday.

#5 Shopping – like DUH!

I am going to be honest here. Shopping on Black Friday has become more of a holiday on its own, but I am not one of those people that shops on Thanksgiving day or wakes up at 4am to buy a TV for $100. It’s not really about the sales for me, but more about the experience. I have this tradition where I wake up like around 7am, grab a latte at Starbucks and head on over to the mall and just wing it. I don’t have a plan of attack on which sales to hit first or mapped out the best route to all my favorite stores and I don’t really do my Christmas shopping on that day. I kind of just walk around with my kids and if I see something I like that is a good deal, I buy it. Then we grab a nice lunch at a restaurant and go to the movies, where we always catch the latest….

#4 Disney Movies (and or Disney Pixar)

Disney always releases a movie right before the long Thanksgiving weekend and ever since I had kids, I have taken them to watch a movie on Black Friday after a day of shopping. We have seen Tangled, Frozen, The Good Dinosaur, Moana and this Friday we will be adding Coco to the list. I seriously cannot wait to see this movie. Just the music alone has me all worked up and, as a Latina, I love that it has a Latino cast (Gael Garcia Marquez, Benjamin Bratt and Edward James Olmos). Let’s not even talk about the animation and the colors! All I know is that Disney better do a collab with a beauty brand and release a Coco palette.

#3 Four Day Weekend (Woot, Woot!)

Do I really need to go into detail on this subject? I live in the US. We have like 56 LESS national paid holidays than any other industrialized country. Knowing that I have a day off on the biggest shopping day of the year is what practically makes the other 364 bearable.

#2 Christmas Tree

It seems that this day is full of traditions, but while the morning is spent at the store and the afternoon at the movies, the evening has always been dedicated to putting up the Christmas tree with the family. I don’t like to do it before Thanksgiving, so the Friday after Turkey Day, we take the tree out of storage, grab the containers with all the lights and ornaments and decorate. The Hubs will set up the lights and complain that the cat chewed the cords last year and some bulbs don’t work. The kids will start strong and help, but after about 30 minutes, drift toward their iPhones and iPads and that leaves me to finish the job. It doesn’t bother me. I kind of like it.

The Rodriguez Clan Knows How to Party!

#1 Kick starting the Christmas Season

Aside from the shopping and mayhem, the day after Thanksgiving is officially the start of the Christmas Season. Some people say it starts on Thanksgiving day (Errrr…WRONG!) and others say December 1 (Wrong again). It officially starts on Black Friday because that still gives you a few extra precious days of candy canes, gingerbread cookies, Christmas lights, snowmen (Sandmen if you live in Florida like me), Christmas carols, parties, cocktails (lot’s of cocktails!), ugly Christmas sweaters, holiday movies, and especially days off (remember I live in the US).

My parents and grandparents, who immigrated from Cuba in the 1960’s, never quite grasped the English language very well, however, they sure LOVED American holidays and traditions and Thanksgiving was one of their favorites.

One small problem, as Spanish speakers, they had a tough time pronouncing the “Th” sound, so it always kind of came out as “Sss“, so Thanksgiving was always “San-Giving” in my house.

It still is to be honest. Old habits die hard.

However, regardless of how you pronounce it, I want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving/San-Giving!

PS – if you want to know what my life was growing up in the 80’s and 90’s as a Cuban American family living in Miami, check out one of my favorite shows “Que Pasa, USA?” It was actually made in the 70’s, but still resonated then and still does today. You can catch clips of it on YouTube and I’m sure that any First Generation American family can identify.

You ever find a beauty product that you are supremely loyal to? I’m not really talking about loving a brand and buying all or some of their products, but rather a specific item from a specific brand that you always buy? Well, that’s me with mascara.

Last year, I got a sample of Marcelle’s Xtension Plus Curl mascara in a Birchbox and ever since then, I have never found another mascara that compares. It lengthens and curls my lashes to perfection without leaving them clumpy. I have gone through like 4 tubes and even though I have tried various other mascara’s since then, they are always a big fat “Nope”. I don’t even own any other make up from Marcelle except for this mascara and the reason I keep on trying to find a good substitute is because Marcelle isn’t currently sold in any stores and I have to buy my beloved mascara from Birchbox or from directly from their website. Loving something so exclusively means that unless you have back ups, if you happen to lose, misplace or, God forbid it gets discontinued, you are basically up shit’s creek.

I’ll be like Elaine from Seinfeld when her favorite contraceptive sponge got discontinued and she had to ask all the men she was dating if they were “sponge worthy” before agreeing to have sex, except every time I put on make up, I’ll have to decide if today’s event is mascara worthy.

Me: Is the movie we are going to see “mascara worthy”?

Hubs: It’s Justice League

Me: Oh HELL NO! I’ll just wear sunglasses so nobody can see my shame.

So, my search continues for a good replacement and when I was in Target a few weeks back, I came across Covergirl’s Peacock Flare mascara. Immediately, I was drawn in by the packaging. I am a serious sucker for art deco and the feathery blue and black triangle design on the tube, gave me Great Gatsby vibes, so I threw it in the cart without a second thought.

Unfortunately, that is where the love ends. The minute I pulled the brush from the tube, I groaned. It had these short, rubber spikes that are so popular nowadays on mascara, but that I hate with a passion. I often wonder whatever happened to the traditional curved bristle mascara brush. They are definitely going the way of the dinosaur and as a girl with thin, wispy lashes, the rubber spiked wands just turn my lashes all clumpy and creepy Annabelle doll looking, when what I want are feathery curled lashes.

However, I soldier on and begin to apply the mascara. In preparation for the clump, I wiped down the bristles a bit and applied, beginning at the root and doing that little jiggle all the way to the tips. The first swipe, left most of the product at the root, but didn’t give my lashes much volume. So I wait a bit and apply a second layer, but the product is just kind of hanging around at the root and not really going anywhere else. I can’t seem to get it to lengthen.

This is where I find that a bristle brush excels. The fibers of the brush carry the product from room to tip and help make your lashes long, which still providing that volume that you need. The rubber bristles in this mascara are a little too far apart to do the job for me and thus the dreaded clump.

Not judging here though. If you are digging the clumpy lash look, then by all means, go and grab a tube of Peacock Flare. However, if you want more feathery lashes, then don’t be deceived by the bird reference and continue the hunt for your favorite mascara replacement.

Also, if you happen to come across any bristle, curved mascara’s and want to give it a shout out, leave it in the comments below. I will be happy to give it a try to see if it is a good replacement for my beloved Marcelle Xtension Plus Curl.

Picture this: Sunday night and I have an intense craving for chocolate. Having consumed all the good stuff from my kids Halloween stash and left with only the crap candy, I put on a bra (can we say Cla-Say!) and high tail it to Walgreens in my tights and Captain America t-shirt for some real chocolate.

I mean, let’s face it, Tootsie Roll. You need to decide if you are chocolate or taffy, because you can’t have it both ways.

Anyways, as it has become the custom, I take the long way to the candy aisle through the beauty section. Not much is calling my attention and nothing new seems to have hit the shelves yet, but low and behold, I see a flutter of little orange clearance tags on one of the Soap & Glory shelves and my interest is piqued.

As a fan of their Flake Away scrub, I love Soap & Glory’s bath items, but I have to admit that I’m not very familiar with their make up, so I was happy to see that it was their Sexy Mother Puckers Matte Lips and Gloss Sticks that were on sale. I find that Soap & Glory products to be a little higher than your average drugstore products and very rarely do I see a sale on makeup so I’m not usually very incentivized to buy. Also, although these lippies seem to have been around for a while, I had no idea they existed and was excited to put them to the test.

I picked up a beautiful Matte Shade called Chocoberry. It’s a lovely mauve pink color that applies creamy, but dries down to a powdery, velvet finish. It actually reminds me a lot of the Nars Velvet Matte Lip Pencils in texture and finish, but it glides on way smoother as the applicator has a wider, flat tip and doesn’t tug quite as much on the lips as the Nars pencils do.

In an attempt to venture past my usual red lips, I was intrigued by the Gloss Stick in Purple Rain. For those of you that love a good vampy lip, don’t be fooled by the color of the stick, it’s actually quite a sheer berry colored gloss, which is nice if you are beginning to dip your foot into the darker shades, but leaves you feeling swindled, especially if you were expecting something special named after one of the most iconic songs from the 80’s.

I’m sorry, Prince. It’s not worthy of your talent.

However, the Gloss Sticks did manage to redeem themselves with Pink Punch. A vibrant hot pink that glides on easily and does indeed pack a nice upper cut. Unlike the glosses you typically find in a tube, these feel more like a balm and although don’t have megawatt shine, do add a nice glossy finish that I found to last through coffee and an hour long conference call at work.

Normally priced at $6, they were on sale for $3.89 in store and I am not sure if they are being discontinued or maybe making room for new colors, but you can still find them at Walgreens.com, ($4.79 online), so make sure you head on over and snag one.

Anyone else find any sale items in their local drugstores? If so, comment down below.

For the longest time, every time I used to go to Sephora and the lady behind the counter would ask me if I would like to redeem any of my points, I would always say no.

Why you may ask?

I have not the slightest idea. I think subconsciously I was waiting for that day that Sephora would decide to convert all your points into dollars, thus allowing me to go on the most EPIC shopping spree of all time!

Anyways, seeing as that day isn’t coming any day this millennia, I have been actually choosing to redeem my points, which I may add, always seems to take the Sephora cashiers aback. They always give me this “For Reals?” look when I say that “Yes, I do want the deluxe sized Tory Burch Love Relentlessly perfume sample.” So I must not be the only one waiting for Sephora to turn points into cash.

However, the last time I was in store, I was feeling frisky and decided to break the bank and select the Boscia Skincare for Your Selfie 500 point reward. As a fan of the Boscia Makeup Melter, I was kind of hoping to snag one of those in the box, but no such luck, they didn’t include it.

Nonetheless, the kit did include samples of the following:

Detoxifying Black Cleanser – right off the bat the first thing I noticed was that this cleanser has a warming sensation when you rub it on your face. It doesn’t last very long and I’m not really sure what the purpose of that is, but it was COOL (in a warm sensation kind of way). The cleanser is black and silky and although it did a good job in removing all my makeup, it left my face a bit tight. I definitely prefer the Makeup Melter Balm because it leaves my face nice and supple.

Charcoal Pore Pudding Mask – made with both Black and White Charcoal, the mask is supposed to minimize the look of pores and leave your skin balanced. It does have a pudding like consistency and applies like BUTTAH! Since we are dipping into a fro-yo like swirl of black and white gooeyness, it goes on gray on your skin and takes about 20 minutes to dry. Once you wash off, your skin is nice and clean, although, once again, a bit tight.

Luminizing Black Mask – a peel off mask that, unlike those black masks that had people screaming in pain when they peeled them off a few months back, is quite painless and that is mostly because no matter how many layers of this stuff I put on, I was never able to get a good strip to peel. It was always bits and pieces, which frustrated the crap out of me and made me just wash off the majority instead of picking at it. However, it left my face really nice and glowy and when I applied my makeup, made for a great skin day.

Revitalizing Black Hydration Gel – a cooling gel moisturizer that I will right away say that was just “MEH”. I just can’t get behind a gel moisturizer because it just felt like I was applying that aloe vera stuff you put on when you get a sunburn. It was tacky to the touch, which I suppose would be good if you are going to apply foundation afterwards, but it never felt moisturizing.

Perfecting White Charcoal Mattifying Treatment Primer – Now this stuff is the shiz-net! It’s milky white and has a slight gel like consistency that leaves your face tacky to the touch. It minimized my pores, helped my foundation go on smooth and left me looking way less oily than I usually do when I use Benefit Porefessional. When I combined this with the Luminizing Black Mask, I felt like a Victoria’s Secret Angel.

All the products had that similar herbal like scent that I found very fresh and different. It wasn’t overpowering and didn’t linger, which I also like.

Would I purchase the full size of any of these? Yes! For sure the Luminizing Black Mask and Mattifying Primer. The others are debatable. They weren’t horrible, but just not to my liking. However, it’s nice to come to that decision without having to actually drop some cash on it.

One of the most asked questions that I got the most from my What’s in Travel Bag post was actually something that didn’t go in my make up bag. My pink hairbrush straightener from Bestope. I kind of threw it in the picture last minute, when I noticed it off in the corner of the bed, not thinking that some of you would zero in on it, but you sure did! There must be a whole lot more frizzy haired femmes out there than I originally thought.

I don’t feel so alone anymore.

Most of you asked the following questions:

Does it really straighten your hair? Yes. Not the kind of straight you get from a flat iron, but it leaves it smooth and silky feeling.

How long does it take to straighten your hair? I guess that would depend on how much hair you have, but I have A LOT of hair and if I where to blow dry and then use the flat iron, we are talking about a solid hour or more. With the hairbrush straighter, I would say it takes about 30 minutes. Maybe 45 if the kids are out of school. Moms, you feel me, right?

How much does it cost? I bought mine about a year ago on Amazon and I paid about $29.99 for it. I couldn’t find the exact one on there anymore, but I found a similar one from Bestope and it’s even cheaper….$24.99!!

I know sometime last year, Dafni came out with a straightening hair brush that cost like $300 (for the record it’s like $66 dollars now) Everyone went crazy buying it and there was a huge waitlist. Of course, it didn’t take long for a bunch of dups to come out in the market and seeing as I how I am A) not very patient and B) didn’t have $300 to drop on hair tool, I decided to purchase a copy cat.

I really didn’t have high hopes, to be honest. I have been fighting the frizz since I was a teen and although I know my way around a blow dryer and flat iron, I always hated the time it took to get my hair straight. Fast forward a few years, a couple of keratin treatments that seriously stunted the growth of my hair, and giving birth to my little Time Suckers, it seemed like having straight hair was turning into the equivalent of a full nights sleep – a dream only achieved once or twice a year when I visited that magical place called a Hair Salon (queue the angels choir).

However, the Bestope Hair Straightener exceeded my expectations. Not only did it cut my time in half in front of the mirror, but it also made my hair look really smooth. It’s also a breeze to use. All you need is:

Dry hair (not be used with wet hair)

Make sure to spritz on some heat protectant. I use the It’s a 10 Miracle Leave-in Spray because ain’t nobody got time use so many products when this one does it all.

Adjust the heat to your desired degree. With my hair type and thickness I do the max, 425 F, which I know is not recommended and is probably contributing to the frizziness, but it’s like once you go 425F, you can never go back!

Portion off your hair in pieces and basically brush your hair, but comb it through slowly. Repeat until you get the desired smoothness.

left side: au natural / right side: smoothed out

There are a few cons I have to point out. First off, it’s hard to get those little hairs around your temple and forehead because its hard to run the brush that close to your skin without burning it. Same thing goes for the underside of your hair around your neck. I’ve given myself more than a few hickey looking burns by being careless. It’s also a little hard to reach the roots on the top of the head. When I am done, I usually go in with a round brush and blow dryer and smooth out the roots and wispy hairs around the side and forehead.

In order to maintain the look until I wash my hair, I usually go in every morning and give my hair a quick once over with the hairbrush straightener and I’m out the door. Ok. Not really because I am always running back into the house to get something that I forgot, like keys, phones, my kids.

Don’t judge, ok? We’ve all been there.

Anyways, shoot over any frizz fighting tips. I’m always on the hunt for any recommendations on how to tame the beast.